Tuesday, April 25, 2006
1,000th Mile
As we drove into Washington DC, we hit the 1,000th mile of our book tour at the junction of Connecticut Ave. and East West Highway. This also marks our 7th state after an evening in Philadelphia catching up with Susan Jackson and family—Susan was the first friend I met in Istanbul when Bil and I moved there in 1995.
The nation’s capital... What they say about DC in springtime is true—cherry blossoms galore. But the cherry trees had stiff competition from the blazing azaleas, delicate dogwoods, pansies, and hydrangeas decorating all corners of the town.
The first stop of the day was a visit to the reknowned Politics & Prose bookstore on Connecticut Ave. to sign copies of EH. We were pleased that the manager immediately recognized the name of our book and said she’d already sold several.
Our first event in DC on a balmy evening at sunset on Sunday, April 23rd, was a gathering of 12 friends, family, and neighbors on the veranda of our hostess Ashley Doherty. Guests included World Bank executives, lawyers, Knight Ridder staff, a Peace Corps alum, and even the aunt of my Istanbul neighbor Betsy Smith! Bryn Mawr alumnae count: 5.
The next event was today (Monday, April 24th) at the NGO Population Action International on Dupont Circle, an organization devoted to issues of women and children in the developing world. The brown bag lunch talk was comprised of 14 PAI staffers, including Heather Papp, intern and Master’s student of the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University who has a Turkish signficant other. Besides each person buying a book, they were also quick to secure a copy for their resource center.
Afterwards, we dropped by Olsson’s, Books-A-Million, and Kramer Books near Dupont Circle to sign their copies of EH.
